IT is not every day a Premier League manager is put up for bed and breakfast at a rival's home and after last season's stopover at Tony Pulis' house there is no rush for Martin O'Neill to do it again.

Pulis allowed O'Neill to stay the night in February after snowfall made it extremely dangerous for him to leave Staffordshire after Sunderland's 1-0 win over Stoke City.

The Black Cats boss claims not to have too many friends in football, but the pair have formed a decent relationship since O'Neill's days in charge of Aston Villa when he loaned Lee Hendrie and Patrick Berger to Stoke.

And when the weather intervened in the immediate aftermath of Sunderland's last visit to the Britannia Stadium, the Black Cats boss found himself being offered a nightstay at the home of the manager he had just defeated.

"We didn't entertain ourselves very well," said O'Neill. "Tony's not a great loser! We didn't watch Match of the Day together. Would I be sat there shouting at the TV as we won the game as (James) McClean skipped in and put the ball in the net? No! The TV was conveniently switched off.

"We didn't get to his house until very late because of the snow. I didn't leave the football club until about 11pm. Tony's OK but that length off time with him is too much for me, however much I like him, it was too much for me."

O'Neill was attempting to head south after McClean had sealed the three points with an individual second half winner.

"I didn't mean to stay at his house … I was heading to London to see my daughters and I was getting a lift with Gerry Francis, Stoke coach, who said he would take me to the station," said O'Neill.

"We couldn't get out of the snow. We were stuck for about two hours so we trudged back to the ground and Gerry and I stayed with Tony. I didn't drink as much red wine as Tony did!

"Did you think I'd really want to stay there, particularly as we'd won the game? Certainly not. Seriously, if I'd had the capability without a dodgy knee I'd have walked home. Honestly I would have done."

A repeat of the result that afternoon earlier in the year could see Sunderland climb in to the top half of the Premier League. It would certainly see them climb above Stoke, Liverpool and Newcastle for 24 hours at least.

Stoke are going through a change of style under Pulis, having successfully kept his team in the Premier League for the last few seasons playing direct football.

O'Neill is an admirer of Pulis' success, even if he would rather not be heading back to his house for a night stop in the future.

"When I was at Aston Villa I loaned him a couple of players and we seemed to get on reasonably well," said O'Neill. "I do have a lot of time for him because he's done very well there.

"It's a tough old job there, he got them promoted and they were expected to struggle but he kept them up and got them to a cup final and the Europa League. It's been a great time for them in the last couple of years, and they'll be OK regardless of the set of results they get."

The two managers also bumped in to each other on holiday during the summer, but the day job has very much underway again and Sunderland are in desperate need of an injection of life.

Despite losing just once this season O'Neill has become frustrated by a lack of creativity from his side even though he spent £22m on winger Adam Johnson and Steven Fletcher.

Fletcher has started brightly, but Johnson has taken more time to settle back in the North-East after being slowed up by a hamstring problem picked up on England duty last month.

The former Manchester City and Middlesbrough winger was short of his best in last weekend's derby draw with Newcastle and was replaced in the second half after failing to give Sunderland a spark down the right.

But O'Neill is confident Johnson can soon rediscover the talent which has made him one of the most dangerous and unpredictable wingers in the Premier League over the last couple of years.

"Coming here and maybe feeling he's expected to win games on his own could have affected him," said O'Neill. "That's a thought, it's not necessarily something he'd believe but that's something he should concern himself less with if it is.

"When you've left a big club but haven't been playing regularly, you come here and you want to do well for yourself and the club and prove that you're a really good player."

Since setting up James McClean's two goals over Morecambe on his debut in August, Johnson has been up and down in a Sunderland shirt.

But O'Neill, unlikely to take him out of the firing line today despite making changes, is confident the Easington-born trickster will come good. With calls for Seb Larsson to move out wide instead of McClean and/or axe Stephane Sessegnon, O'Neill claimed he will "always looks to have flair players in his side."